Minecraft creator Markus 'Notch' Persson wanted to create a Valve, not work at Valve

It’s sometimes interesting to take a look back and realize how a single decision could have had a drastic impact on something today. Such is the case with Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson who was offered a job with Valve a few years back. Obviously, he declined the invitation but things could have been vastly different had he accepted.

As the story goes, Notch was invited to Valve around the time that the beta version of Minecraft was starting to grow in terms of popularity. He was shown around Valve’s offices and met with Gabe Newell before he was taken to a meeting room for a chat with the studio’s HR team.

After telling the team a bit about himself and his plans for Minecraft, he ultimately realized he was in the middle of a job interview. Sure enough, the official invitation was put on the table moments later. According to the book, Persson politely but firmly said he wasn’t interested in the position.

Notch said it was one of the toughest decisions of his life although he somehow felt that Minecraft was his chance to create his own version of Valve rather than work at Valve. The rest, as they say, is history as more than 33 million copies of Minecraft have been sold to date.